Here's what we Eurosceptics were saying about Ireland and the euro in 1998

I can see you don't want to hear it, but I was still right about the Greeks

Alright, alright: we all know who got it wrong about the euro. But who got it right?

Well, I’ve just been looking at The Euro: Bad for Business, published in 1998 by the European Research Group, and drafted partly by me, but mainly by Mark Reckless, now the MP for Rochester and Strood. In it, we argued that there was a tension between the needs of Europe’s core and its periphery.

If the ECB determined monetary policy to suit the majority of participants, it would give “the peripheral states a double-dose of what they don’t need: low interest rates”. The consequence would be an unsustainable credit boom in some of those states and, in due course, a commensurately painful crash. The UK, we cautioned, should pay particular attention to what happened in Ireland:

The UK and Ireland would be especially badly affected by monetary union with the Continent. With regard to Ireland, which intends to join EMU at the outset, this is already becoming clear. Of all the EU member states, Ireland is easily the closest to the UK. Not only are the two states linked by trade, investment and labour mobility, but their economies are similarly structured. The strains which EMU is already causing in Ireland should serve as a vivid warning to Britain.

Being Cassandra is, of course, part of the conservative condition. You seize your fellow Trojans by the ears. You bellow: “Listen, for the love of Zeus: the horse is full of Greek hoplites. You don’t have to take my word for it: you can actually hear their weapons clanking”. But even as you speak, you know what the response is going to be. “Stop being such a xenophobe, Cassandra, we’re all Europeans now. When are you going to stop moaning and join the modern world?”